Process of preparing shredded cereal products.



pm EDs ATEs o en? Jenn L. KELLOG, or nn'rmLn -cnnnx, mrcnieniv, AssIGNon: T0 KELLoGG 'ron's'rnn com; FLARE 00., orm 'rrtn CREEK, m cnrenn.

Pnocnss or PREPARING snnnnnnn CEREAL rnobucrs,

No Drawing.

- To all whom it may concern. I

"shredded cereal-products and the process of to provide a Be it known that I, JoHNL. Knnnooc, a citizen oi the United States, .resid ngat B attle'Creek, Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in been thoroughly and completely cooked and aerated. Second, to provide an improved process of thus treating .wheat or similar cereal.

My invention relates to' and is particu larly adaptedfor the treatment of whole heat, but other grains may be similarly treated.

In the preferred method and process I:

take whole wheat and grind the same. on a French bur stone to crush and not cut and destroy the texture. To 7 asix hundred pound batch "of such whole wheatunbolted flour, of Water in which I'have previously thoroughly dissolved six percent. of sugar and two per cent. of salt. I then mix the'flour in this water with a rotary'mixer very thoroughly fora period of ten minutes, or there about, until the mass is a very thick, heavy dough. This dough is delivered from the mixer and rolled out into a thick slab about two inches thick, and preferably into'a layer about twenty-fourinches wide and twelve inches long, the material, passing under a suitable roller for the purpose. This' heavy dough is then placed in covered pans and put in a steam retort-where it is subjected to steam heat for a period of about one andone half hours at fifteen pounds pressure,

which gives a temperature of about 250 degrees Fahr.

The material thus cooked is taken from the pans and placed in wire racks where it is dried for a periodof. twenty-four hours in the open air. This dried and cooked dough is then passed through a rotary swing hammer breaker, .which breaks the material up into cubes about one 'inch square. These lumps are then passed through a breaker or grinder which reduces to dimensions of about the size of a split pea.

o Specification ofLettei's Patent.

Application filed September 15,1912. Ser ia1No.720,471-.

I add two hundred and fifty pounds.

teen pounds Patented Nov. 2, '1915".

The material thus reduced to the size of a pea is passed through a Hess drier, or similar drier, and a current of dry air is delivered through the same until the material is thoroughly air dried. The material in the airy dried condition isthen passed through v shredding rollers and delivered'in layers to suitable bake pans and is cut up into suitable biscuits, or any form that may be dei sired and suitably compressed and passed in the baking .pa'ns, suitably covered, to a thirty minutes at a temperature "of from suitable oven where the same is baked for I 450 to 500 Fahr. This thoroughly bakes the material, and it is then. passed from the baking oven, removed from the bake pans and passed through a drying oven, where,

' for a period "of one hour, a current of air at a' temperature of from 250 to 300 'Fahr. is causedpto circulate overand through the biscuits or shredded material thus formed.

The biscuit, when. thus thoroughly cooked g and driedahas much the appearance of the ordinaryshredded wheat biscuit, the dif-' ference being that the material is thoroughly cooked and converted to 'dextrin, making a very digestible aerated bread or food, the other constituents not being destroyed but thoroughly cooked.

I desire to state that this-process can be considerably varied" It isaa requirement that the flour be whole wheat or whole gram flour, and that the same be ground by crushing, as distinguished from a cutting of the texture of the grain. The grain should be thoroughly treated and mixed and steamed, and-thereafter reduced to granules, shredded, baked and dried in order to secure the -'best results.

A fairly complete conversion of thestarchy material to dextrin is accomplished without injury to the. food values of the other constituents of the grain, and

the whole is aerated and light and palatable. Having thus described my invention,what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

ljThe process of preparing a shredded biscuit consisting in first grinding the grain by a crushing action, second, cooking the same in a' suitable steam retort at about fifpressure, air drying the steamed mass for substantially twenty-four hours, reducing the dried mass to granules, air drying the granules in a current of air, subjecting the granules to the action of ioo shredding rollers, baking the material in -covered pans in an oven at a temperature of from 400 to 500 Fahr., and removing from the pans and'drying the same in an air current at a temperature of 250 to 300 same in a suitable steam retort at about fifteen pounds pressure, air drying the steamed mass, reducing the dried mass to granules, ai'r drying the granules, subgecting the granules to the action of-shredding rollers, baking the material in covered pans in an oven at a temperature of from 400 to 500 Fahr., and removing from the pans and drying the same at a temperature of 250 to 300 Fahr.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN L. KELLOGG. [L. s.] Witnesses:

CHAS. M. MARBLE, H.-E. RALBH. 

